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Feds Give School One Month to Open Girls' Locker Room to Transgender Student

Carrie Dedrick

A Chicago-area school reportedly has one month to allow a transgender student access to the girls locker room and showers or it will lose its federal funding. 

The Christian Post reports that a transgender student filed a lawsuit against the Township High School District, arguing that restricting use of the girls’ changing facilities was discriminatory. Though the student was given a private changing area, the student wished to be allowed to use the girls’ facilities to avoid being singled out. 

The Civil Rights Office of the United States Department of Education ruled in favor of the student. If the school does not comply, it will lose $6 million in funding. 

Superintendent Daniel Cates maintains that allowing the transgender student access to the girls’ locker room and showers would violate the privacy of the female students. 

"The students in our schools are teenagers, not adults, and one's gender is not the same as one's anatomy. Boys and girls are in separate locker rooms — where there are open changing areas and open shower facilities — for a reason,” Cates said in a statement. 

The school district is reportedly following due process to determine how to honor the rights of all students within the confines of the law. 

Publication date: November 5, 2015